Sonam Wangchuk is India’s most renowned Educationist, Environmentalist and Innovator. He was born in 1966 in Uleytokpo, near Alchi in the Leh district of Ladakh. At the age of 9, he was taken to Srinagar and enrolled in a school there. Sonam Wangchuk completed his B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from National Institute of Technology Srinagar (then REC Srinagar) in 1987. He also went for two years of higher studies in Earthen Architecture at Craterre School of Architecture in Grenoble, France, in 2011.
In 1988, after his graduation, Wangchuk (with his brother and five peers) started Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL). After experimenting with school reforms in government high school at Saspol, SECMOL launched Operation New Hope in collaboration with the government education department and the village population.
As an engineer, Sonam Wangchuk has been teaching innovation at the SECMOL Alternative School, where together with the students, he designed and built solar heated buildings that are low cost, made of earth/mud but maintain +15 C even when the outside temperature is –15 C in Ladakhi winters.
In 2013, on repeated requests from students community of Ladakh, Wangchuk helped launch the New Ladakh Movement (NLM), a social campaign and Ladakh’s version of Green Party with the aim of working for sustainable education, environment and economy. It also aimed at uniting all local political leaders under one banner for the growth and development of Ladakh. Eventually, the members decided to make it into a non-political social movement.
Sonam Wangchuk is the recipient of several awards, The Rolex Award for Enterprise 2016 in Hollywood USA, The Terra Award 2016 for World’s Best Earth Buildings in Lyon France, The UNESCO Chair for Earth Architecture for India in 2014, ‘Real Heroes’ Award by CNN IBN Channel in 2008, ‘Green Teacher’ Award by Sanctuary Asia Magazine in 2005, Ashoka Fellowship by Ashoka: Innovators for the Public in 2002, ‘Man of the Year’ by The Week magazine in India in 2001 and the Governors Medal by the J&K State Government in 1996.
